READ STUDY GUIDE: Act II, scenes i–iv |
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Act II, Scene i:
The Forest of Arden.
The Forest of Arden.
| [Enter DUKE Senior, AMIENS, and other LORDS, in the dress offoresters.] |
| DUKE SENIOR: |
| Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, |
| Hath not old custom made this life more sweet |
| Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods |
| More free from peril than the envious court? |
| Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,— |
| The seasons' difference: as the icy fang |
| And churlish chiding of the winter's wind, |
| Which when it bites and blows upon my body, |
| Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say, |
| This is no flattery: these are counsellors |
| That feelingly persuade me what I am. |
| Sweet are the uses of adversity; |
| Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, |
| Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; |
| And this our life, exempt from public haunt, |
| Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, |
| Sermons in stones, and good in everything. |
| I would not change it. |
| AMIENS: |
| Happy is your grace, |
| That can translate the stubbornness of fortune |
| Into so quiet and so sweet a style. |
| DUKE SENIOR: |
| Come, shall we go and kill us venison? |
| And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools, |
| Being native burghers of this desert city, |
| Should, in their own confines, with forked heads |
| Have their round haunches gor'd. |
| FIRST LORD: |
| Indeed, my lord, |
| The melancholy Jaques grieves at that; |
| And, in that kind, swears you do more usurp |
| Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you. |
| To-day my lord of Amiens and myself |
| Did steal behind him as he lay along |
| Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out |
| Upon the brook that brawls along this wood: |
| To the which place a poor sequester'd stag, |
| That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt, |
| Did come to languish; and, indeed, my lord, |
| The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans, |
| That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat |
| Almost to bursting; and the big round tears |
| Cours'd one another down his innocent nose |
| In piteous chase: and thus the hairy fool, |
| Much marked of the melancholy Jaques, |
| Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook, |
| Augmenting it with tears. |
| DUKE SENIOR: |
| But what said Jaques? |
| Did he not moralize this spectacle? |
| FIRST LORD: |
| O, yes, into a thousand similes. |
| First, for his weeping into the needless stream; |
| 'Poor deer,' quoth he 'thou mak'st a testament |
| As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more |
| To that which had too much:' then, being there alone, |
| Left and abandoned of his velvet friends; |
| ''Tis right'; quoth he; 'thus misery doth part |
| The flux of company:' anon, a careless herd, |
| Full of the pasture, jumps along by him |
| And never stays to greet him; 'Ay,' quoth Jaques, |
| 'Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens; |
| 'Tis just the fashion; wherefore do you look |
| Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?' |
| Thus most invectively he pierceth through |
| The body of the country, city, court, |
| Yea, and of this our life: swearing that we |
| Are mere usurpers, tyrants, and what's worse, |
| To fright the animals, and to kill them up |
| In their assign'd and native dwelling-place. |
| DUKE SENIOR: |
| And did you leave him in this contemplation? |
| SECOND LORD: |
| We did, my lord, weeping and commenting |
| Upon the sobbing deer. |
| DUKE SENIOR: |
| Show me the place: |
| I love to cope him in these sullen fits, |
| For then he's full of matter. |
| FIRST LORD: |
| I'll bring you to him straight. |
| [Exeunt.] |
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